Observations from the First Televised Game of the Year

We’re just over a week deep into the Grapefruit League schedule, but for some reason it doesn’t seem real until you can hear the crack of the bat and see the corresponding play on television.

Overall, it was great to enjoy a lazy Sunday with some Blue Jays baseball on TV and I don’t know how we managed five months without it.

Anyway, not like the Blue Jays 5-0 win over the Pirates was the preamble to a celebration down Yonge Street, but here are some random observations from yesterday’s game:

Looks like Buck Martinez and Pat Tabler are shirt twins once again this season. The image at the top of this post wasn’t lifted from yesterday’s game, but from a road trip last year where they donned the same blue shirts.

Speaking of interesting looks, I’m still getting accustomed to those canary yellow Pittsburgh Pirates BP jerseys. They’re so yellow that at any given moment, a member of their roster could very well burst out into “Peanut Butter Jelly Time“.

We saw this a lot during the playoffs last year, but the Blue Jays broadcast sprinkled a few in-game interviews with players in the dugout. I hope it’s something that’s carried over into the regular season because it’s very cool to get into the mindset of the players during the game.

One such interview was with Jose Bautista, and one of the most interesting things he said was that in addition to showing Brett Lawrie the ropes at third base, that Bautista is also picking up some pointers from Lawrie.

McKechnie Field is considered to be the Fenway Park of Spring Training facilities, and judging by the way some fly balls were carrying, it could also be considered the pre-humidor era Coors Field. It appeared as though balls in foul territory were really carrying long.

Then of course there was that tricky play where a pop up in foul territory floated into the infield and bounced just in front of Brett Lawrie. I’m sure the wind had something to do with it, but that was one of the weirdest plays I’ve ever seen.

I’m not sure of the outfielders that play in McKechnie Field get hazard play for having to deal with all those seagulls, but they certainly should. At times during the broadcast, it looked like we were watching a game take place at the city dump because of all the seagulls.

Ian has been writing about the Toronto Blue Jays since 2007. He enjoyed the tail-end of the Roy Halladay era and vividly remembers the Alex Rodriguez “mine” incident. He’ll also retell the story of Game 5 of the ALDS to his kids for the next 20 years.

7 Comments

Completely agree with the "weirdest play" regarding Lawrie. It was evident we weren't alone with our thinking – first the infield fly rule was called, then it was not? Regardless, we got out of the inning unharmed which is all that matters!

April, that's was such an odd play, I don't really know how to describe it. I can't see that happening within the confines of a major league ballpark, but weirder things have happened. Luckily the game wasn't on the line!

sadp

And yeah…somebody tell those jokers at Sportsnet to not dress Tabler and Martinez the same…it's just weird. They're not brothers or a pair of old people you're worried will get separated and have to find them in a crowd by saying "he's dressed just like this one".

Thank you for calling out their shirts. They really need to call each other the night before so that they know they are not wearing the same thing. MLB 2K11 comes out today, its full fling ball season. Just wish we would stop getting hit with snow storms so we could actually get out on the diamonds ourselves.